Branding the world’s 20 best restaurants

We’re interested in how branding and graphic design operate at the world’s highest bastions of taste, so we decided to have a peek at the web designs of the twenty restaurants that were named the world’s best in 2013.

The chefs that head these establishments take innovation and perfectionism to astounding levels, and in this regard they really function more like designers of food than like simple cooks. The question is, do they demand as much of their graphic designers — the people responsible for crafting the web page that for many would be the point of entry into one of the most exclusive dining rooms on earth?

It varies. At some of these restaurants, the web design clearly takes a back seat to what really matters (it’s what is on the menu that counts, not the look of the menu itself). But for others, it is clear that the web page forms an important part of an overall aesthetic. The point of this post is not to knock the former, but to applaud the latter.

Without further adieu, the websites of the world’s 20 best restaurants in descending order (#1 – #20), with commentary on the top 10. Bon Appetit!

El Celler de Can Roca may be the best restaurant in the world, but the three brothers who run it clearly do not want to come off as snobs. The unpretentious website features them hanging out and grinning — a warm welcome indeed.

Noma routinely ranks among the best restaurants in Europe because of its farm-to-table method that favors beautiful simplicity over unnecessary complexity. Its website, which hinges on a nice, laid back font and zero photography, is equally counter-ostentatious.

Massimo Bottura’s menu is one of the most breathtakingly innovative you will find, but it is also committed to showcasing the culinary tradition of his native Italy. The website’s unusual grid structure reflects that structured but adventuresome spirit.

Located in the quiet countryside of northern Spain, Mugaritz marvelously expresses the culinary tradition of the Basque region. It’s website, however, is anything but quaint. With several pages sliding over one another left and right at every click, it is a tad disorienting. The food photographs are beautiful, but the site itself is somewhat overcooked.

This New York food mecca, whose reputation has been ever on the rise since its establishment in 1998, has a stylishly elegant website built on contrasts: between light and dark, clean typography and complex cuisine, capped by an attractive logo design.

Location: New York, New YorkPrice per person: $225Design: understated, regal

Renowned Chef Alex Atala was a D.J. and a self-described punk before pivoting into the restaurant business and launching D.O.M., his effort to save and celebrate Brazilian cooking. The website, though, too much prizes show over substance: an opening video first clogs your bandwidth, then oddly positioned — though certainly beautiful — photographs of food interrupt what you are trying to read.

Leave it to a Brit to name his restaurant based on wordplay. Chef Blumethal has as much of a love for linguistics as he does for food. The latter results in delicious fare, while the former seems to have guided a website that is as endearingly awkward as a Hugh Grant performance.

Arzak’s legacy may be over 100 years old, but its current incarnation could not feel more youthful and modern. The website declares Arzak as a home for vanguard cuisine right away, playing an intro video showing the arrangement of a bizarre, intriguing dish that literally glows. The whole site, bathed in color, prepares a visitor to expect a party, not a dining room — sensuousness, not stodginess.

The dishes served at Steirereck look like alien ambassadors (the char in beeswax with yellow turnip pollen and cream has a truly otherworldly glow) but in fact they come straight from a nearby farm. There is unfortunately nothing so interesting about the website itself, which is looking rather outdated with its drop-shadowed thumbnails and faux-parchment background.

Location: Vienna, AustriaCollaboration: Chef Heinz Reitbauer has formed a co-operative with local farmers to source the produce he needsDesign: crowded, plain

The three Michelin star-studded Restaurant Vendôme is perhaps the best in Germany. It is part of the Schloss Bensberg hotel, however, which means that it does not have a website of its own and all of its branding defers to that of the hotel. This leaves little to complain about, but also little to praise.

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